Free will and determinism

• Free will - Suggests humans are essentially self determining and free to choose our thoughts and actions:

  • Able to reject environmental forces that would may influence behaviour
  • Backed by the humanistic approach
• Hard determinism:

  'All human behaviour has cause and should be able to identify and describe these causes'

  • Compatible with science - uncover laws that govern thought and action
  • Too extreme by some
• Soft determinism:

  'People have conscious mental control over the way they behave'

  • We have freedom to make rational conscious choices in everyday situations
  • Part of the cognitive approach
• Biological determinism:

  • Physiological and neurological processes - Not under conscious control
  • Behaviours, characteristics and mental disorders - All have a genetic basis
• Environmental determinism:

  • All behaviour is a result of conditioning
  • Choice - sum total of reinforcement contingencies - Acted upon us throughout our lives
  • Behaviour is shaped by environmental events and agents of socialisation
• Psychic determinism:

  'Human behaviour is determined and directed by unconscious conflicts repressed in childhood'

  • Accidents don't exist - Unconscious slips of the tongue
• Evaluation for Determinism:

  • Consistent with the aim of science
  • Value of research - Development of treatments, therapies and behavioural interventions
  • e.g. schizophrenia - Loose control over thought and doubt over free will - behaviour appear determined
• Evaluation against determinism:

  • Hard determinist - Not consistent with how the legal system works - Criminals morally held accountable for actions
  • Unfalsifiable - States causes of behaviour will always exist even though they may not be found

  Limitation: Suggest determinism - Not as scientific as it appears
• Evaluation for free will:

  • Face validity - Practise free will all the time - Makes cognitive sense
  • Internal locus of control had better mental health - People who strongly believe in hard determinism have a higher risk of depression

  Strength: Even if we do not have free will - Thinking we do will have a possible positive impact on mind and behaviour
• Evaluation against free will:

  • Neurological studies - Brain activity determining the outcome of simple choices may predate our knowledge of having made such a such a choice
  • Activity to press a button with left or right - Brain makes a decision up to 10 seconds before ppts are consciously aware

  Limitation: Our most basic experiences of free will are decided and determined by our brain b4 we are aware